Nothing Left to Bruise
by KaeBird13
Summary: Everyone suffers from depression at least once. When it's Danny's turn, it hits him hard. It's not until he's laying there, dying, with no hope for rescue, that he realizes his bruises are only temporarily. Everything will be okay in the end. If it's not okay, it's not the end. Rated T for blood and mentions of suicide. Character!Whump


**Warning: unbeta'd.**

 **Other warnings: Mentions of suicide, blood, gore, violence. Character depression. Spoilers for up to and including Phantom Planet. Major character whump.**

 **To my HBTS readers, I am so sorry I have not published another chapter in the story in such a long time. I lost my muse for it, but I'm trying to get it back.**

 **I am extremely new to the DP fandom. I never watched it as a child, though I had heard of it. I went into denial about growing up and started binge watching cartoons and stumbled head-first into Danny Phantom. Now I am extremely upset I missed the hype of this incredible show. Anyway, I noticed that many people were frustrated with how Danny was portrayed in the third season. (I was too, don't get me wrong. Though I kinda get why, they had to hurry to add some sort of conclusion to the series.) But a plot bunny hit me as I thought about Danny's actions.**

 **I am extremely interested in negative character development, you know, the thing that turns good guys into super villains, so I decided to do a little bit of experimenting. And thus this was born. Now, don't get me wrong, I do not believe that having depression is a sign of negative character develop. I repeat, having depression is not a sign that something is wrong with you.**

 **I had more things planned for this fic, but it turned out way longer than I was planning. I like where I ended it though. But if enough people ask, I'll write up an epilogue for this thing. I know I left a lot of things opened ended and not explained, so maybe I'll write and epilogue and a sequel anyway, regardless if people show interest in this story.**

 **That being said, I hope if you decide to read this you enjoy it. I'd really appreciate if you left me a review.**

 **Sorry, I'm a big fan of these horizontal line things. Any time you see one it means a time lapse or I cut to a different scene. I'm not going to add a disclaimer on this thing either. It should be obvious that I in no way own any part of Danny Phantom.**

* * *

 _Have you ever wanted to disappear? No more problems, no more bruises, no more second guessing._

Thinking hurt. Oh sure, his wounds from the battle last night had all healed, but he could still remember how it felt when the ghost's sharp claws ripped into his arm. Just another scar to add into his ever-growing collection. Did he get any sleep last night? No. Or the night before that. How many hours of sleep had he gotten this week? Three? Four? He didn't know. Thinking hurt. He didn't want to think right now.

Unfortunately, that's what he had to do. Mr. Lancer was talking, but the words were soundless in his ears. He had to concentrate, had to learn the lesson, had to do the assignment. Had to save his failing grade. All he could hear was a buzz in his head. Probably came from his diet; he didn't eat breakfast this morning because he was running late. He didn't eat dinner last night either because some ghost with dangerous claws started to terrorize the city.

Sam and Tucker were looking at him with concern as Mr. Lancer droned on. That's all they ever looked at him with anymore. Concern and pity. Well, he didn't want their pity. All he wanted was sleep. Nothingness, no pain, no thoughts, no saving the world. An escape from the anguish that made up his life right now. His parents were livid that his grades sucked so bad. But how could he explain? _Sorry mom and dad, but I don't have any time during the day for school work or sleep because I'm too busy fighting off ghosts and I can't tell you because I am also a ghost and I'm afraid you'd rip me apart molecule by molecule?_ If he managed to get that out in one breath it would be a miracle.

And then there was Jazz. His older sister had been constantly nagging him about his mental health. _You need to put some time away for just YOU, Danny. You can't be doing stuff for everybody else and ignore yourself! You're important too!_ But if the choice was getting five hours of sleep or saving a little girl from being crushed by a falling building, then was there really even a choice? Still, somethings Jazz had been saying has gotten to him. There was something wrong with him. Danny had grown apathetic, grumpy, prone to mood swings. He was tired. Not in the sense that he had gotten too little sleep (which, obviously, he has), but in the sense he was just too tired to care.

Like what Mr. Lancer was saying. It was probably important, something that most likely affected his grade. But did Danny care? Not in the slightest. A hand touched his knee, and Danny looked up to see Sam smiling at him. Her eyeshadow and lipstick were perfect, like always. Gazing into her purple contact covered eyes did not bring him any reassurance, like it once did. Did Sam like him? Did he like Sam? Too tired to second guess himself.

When she removed her hand, she left a slip of paper on his knee. Danny blinked and stared at it. What was it? Oh, that's right, a note. Picking it up, he took a minute to read it. _We'll take notes for you, Danny. Get some sleep._ It read in Sam's messy scrawl. Letting his head fall to his desk, Danny had the sudden urge to start sobbing. What was the point? Another ghost was just going to attack soon. And then he would be thrown into buildings, electrocuted, and other nasty stuff. Maybe he didn't want to go ghost anymore.

Maybe he didn't want to feel anymore.

* * *

In some ways, he almost preferred his robot friends to the human ones. They didn't talk to him, didn't bug him about saving the world or whatever. Oh he knew he was being selfish. More than selfish, a down-right jerk. Playing video games all day was much easier than going to school and facing the bullies. Facing his friends, facing his teachers, facing responsibilities. Danny hadn't gone ghost in three days, and he was loving it. Half of him was relishing in this new-found wealth, while the other half was dragging thorns of guilt through his insides. An even smaller part of him was poking his brain with a pointy stick, constantly reminding him that sooner or later he was going to have to face the consequences of his actions.

He was letting down Sam and Tucker. He was letting himself down. Danny was better than this, and he knew it. Too bad he didn't really feel like it right now. _Worthless, selfish, waste of space._ His father had made a grand speech about the ghost boy, Danny Phantom at breakfast this morning in their over-sized dining hall. The ghost boy was a menace to society, worthless, deserved to be experimented on and have his very atoms ripped apart. It made Danny feel very small.

" _My parent's will always accept me!"_ He remembered saying at one point in time, back when he first got his phantom powers. It was a game back then. He kept his secret because it felt fun, an exciting challenge that filled him with adrenaline whenever he snuck away from his family to beat a ghost to the ground. Now he was filled with terror. He could imagine Dr. Maddie Fenton sticking a scalpel into his flesh and working while her son screamed in agony. He could imagine her blank face as she experimented, her eyes lighting up whenever she got results. Why would she care that she was destroying her son? He was a freak. An enigma that shouldn't exist.

"A phone call for Mr. Danny." His butler said as he walked into the room, holding out a sleek cellphone for Danny to take. Pausing his video game, Danny accepted the phone. Sam's face popped up on the screen. Longing tugged at his heart and he glanced at robot Sam standing in the corner of his room. Human Sam would always be better than whatever imitation was made to replace her. But he couldn't face human Sam right now. She didn't understand why Danny was acting like this. Then again, Danny didn't know either. It sorta made the pain go away. It made him feel numb. The numbness was worse than any pain he was going through, though.

The phone buzzed and buzzed, but Danny just stared at it, blinking slowly. The call time ended, and the machinery lay motionless in his hand. Minutes later, a light started blinking, letting Danny know he had a new voice mail. He did not know how long he sat there, looking at the slim device that was supposed to help him keep in touch with his friends and family. Was it worth listening to? What would hurt more, listening to Sam's voice or go back to playing video games, pretending the world didn't exist?

Before he could talk himself out of it, Danny flipped open the phone and accessed his voice mail.

"Hey, Danny." He heard Sam's tentative voice come through his speakers. "We, um, Tucker and I went and got all your homework from all of your classes for you. We told the teachers you've been sick."

The way she was talking made Danny feel like he really was sick. Dying. Slowly hollowing out until he was nothing but a shell.

"You've missed a test." She continued. "Your grades are really plummeting."

Of course they were. He hasn't been to school in a week. But his parents were no longer hounding him about his grades; they were too caught up in their wealth to pay much attention to anything other than their money or each other.

"You can't keep doing this, Danny." Sam's voice was more frustrated now than hesitant, like she had finally made up her mind about something. "You can't keep locking yourself away and playing video games. I though Tucker and I were more important to you than video games. Oh, that's right, we've been replaced by shitty robots! Why are you changing, Danny? I. . ."

The phone call abruptly ended, like Sam had decided to cool down instead of chewing out Danny. The boy looked back over to said robots, standing lifelessly on the other side of the room. Right now, he wanted nothing more to set them on fire.

Change is good, change can make people better. Danny _had_ changed. Whenever he looked at himself in the mirror, he hated who he had become. Change is bad, change can make people bitter.

 _I want to change back to who I once was. I forgotten how._

* * *

Spectra's hand touched his torso and Danny felt an incredible chill shoot through every vein in his body. His eyes widened and the strength went out of all of his limbs. Every bad thing he had ever thought, every negative emotion he had felt came crashing down into his mind. He was hyperventilating. Too much, it was too much!

"Ooh-ho!" Spectra grinned, her eyes going as red as her hair. Her other hand snaked around and cupped the back of Danny's hair and she leaned in closer. Danny weakly tried to break from her hold, but his arms weren't cooperating. "My my, Phantom-boy, aren't you just _delicious._ It hasn't been a minute and all my wrinkles are going away! Aw, I could just eat you up."

"Get," Danny jerked his head, or attempted to anyway. "Get away from me!"

The ghost chuckled sweetly. "What's the matter? Mommy and daddy not treating you kindly? Bullies finally getting to you, huh? Cause you're not _strong_ enough, not _good_ enough, right?"

Her face was starting to look more youthful than he had ever seen, and her hair had taken on a glossy, healthy sheen. She was draining him, and he was no longer even trying to fight it. Not strong enough.

"Danny!" Tucker screamed as Sam knelt down and fired a Fenton-blaster. The blast knocked the female ghost away from him, and Danny fell to the ground. It hurt. Everything hurt so damn much. Raising a hand to his face, Danny touched the wetness that was still slipping down his cheeks. When did he start crying? And when would he stop?

* * *

A phantom pain shot up his arm as he looked the ghost in the eye. The wound had healed a year ago, but he could still feel it sometimes when he fought Skulker. That's all being phantom brought him: pain. He didn't want to fight anymore.

The Master's Blasters brought down the ghost in the blink of an eye, and Danny looked away, still in his human form. He hadn't even bothered to transform when Skulker started to attack. He knew he was stronger than Vlad's new creation; he was more powerful too. But when they first showed up, a small voice in the back of his mind said ' _Finally, I don't have to fight anymore'._ It was unconscious at first, but Danny realized that each time he and the Master's Blasters went head-to-head, he held back.

 _Selfish. Don't want to fight, but don't want anyone to beat you either._

Nobody believed in the strength of Danny Phantom anymore. Danny certainly didn't. Sam and Tucker were beyond frustrated with his attitude, and Jazz was disappointed even though she tried to be understanding.

The past couple of months kind of felt like the morning before he had to give a presentation in class. When he was in his parent's car, staring out of the window, he would wish that somebody would come and crash into them. Even though he knew in the long run, the medical bills and recovery would be worse than giving the presentation, getting out of that temporary misery made it seem all worth it.

Danny silently slipped away while the new ghost fighters started collecting their fee from those they had saved. What they were doing was horrible and wrong. He knew he should do something about it. He knew, but he didn't care. Better they get the scars from fighting ghosts than him.

* * *

Taking away his phantom powers had been the best idea he ever had. And the absolute worst, shittiest, completely bad idea. He was ignoring the part that was screaming at him that he was an idiot. You never know what you've got until you've lost it. Or thrown it away on purpose.

Sam and Tucker had abandoned him. _No, you abandoned them._ Danny just wasn't as interesting when he didn't have his ghost powers. _They've always thought you were interesting. You gave them a new life, made them love being able to help people. And then you took that life away. Selfish._ Now he ran away whenever a ghost attacked, like everybody else. Can't fight when there was no ghost half to change into. It made him happy. It also made him want to scream until his throat bled.

Vlad had won. He was popular, he was rich, soon he would be able to take Jack Fenton out of the picture and snatch away Maddie. For all intents and purposes, Masters had beaten Phantom. But all he really did was metaphorically give Danny a gun. Danny was the one who held it to his chest and pulled the trigger.

* * *

The pain from all the ecto blasts was incredible. It was searing, tearing away at his core. Danny could feel the energy soak into his cells, twisting, churning, morphing. He had felt this sensation before; when he turned on the portal from the inside. When he got his ghost powers.

He was dying, just like he had back then. Funny, Danny had never felt more alive.

 _I'm going ghost._ The words were like chocolate ice cream on a bad day. Phantom was back, he was whole again. Frosty air escaped from his throat and it tasted like liquid happiness. This pain was amazing, it reminded him that he could be better than he once was. Fix his mistakes. Make things right with Sam and Tucker.

Glowing green eyes locked onto Sam's purple. She gave him a small smile, and her face radiated her joy. _Welcome back, Danny,_ her expression said. Hell yeah, he was back.

* * *

Vlad Plasmius was gone, the meteor went through the earth, his parents knew he was Phantom, and he had kissed Sam. Valerie knew Danny's secret and was no longer trying to hunt him. Everything was perfect. For two months, at least. After the shock of having the world almost destroyed, it took a while for people to start acting like everything was normal again. Danny liked it better when people acted like they still might die at any moment. They were nicer to each other, more forgiving. The shock wore off, and Dash shoved Danny's head into a toilet.

If only the rest of his classmates found out his secret that day, Danny wished as he laid on the bathroom floor, gasping for breath as dirty water dripped from his hair. Only his friends, family, and a handful of foreign dignitaries (who swore on their lives that they would never tell) knew Fenton was Phantom. He had been honestly surprised when Dash had grabbed the front of his shirt in between their classes and dragged him into the bathroom, promising to put the hurt on Fenturd. Shame on him for thinking that Dash would ever change.

Shame on him for thinking that the emptiness he felt in the pit of his stomach would stay away for good.

Touching a tender spot on his forehead from where his head had smashed into the toilet seat, Danny cursed softly. He knew his super healing would make it go away in minutes, but damn did it sting right now. Checking the time, even though he knew he was already late for his next class, Danny swore again. There was no way he was going to go to his history class with toilet water soaking the top half of his t-shirt.

Standing up, Danny looked at himself in the mirror. His black hair was pressed against his skull, and there was a nice-sized bump on his right temple. "I'm going ghost." He whispered to himself as glowing rings swept over his body. Phantom looked even more tired than Fenton. Water splashed onto the floor as Danny turned intangible.

He couldn't remember how he used to deal with the bullying. _Sidney Poindexter committed suicide because of bullying._ Danny didn't know why the thought suddenly came to his mind. It made him uncomfortable, and he tightened his hands into fists.

"Please stay okay." He told Phantom. "Please don't get sad again, or keep your feeling from your friends." Please don't change back into the Danny he hated.

* * *

He had lost weight. A lot of weight. He can't fall asleep anymore until he exhausts himself to the point where his body has no choice but to shut down. Five months after everything got better, things got much worse than before. His family had noticed. Sam had broken up with him because he got mad and yelled at her.

Danny's hand let go of his pants, and they slumped down to the bottom of his hips. His life was one big routine and he was barely stumbling through it right now.

 _Maybe it would be better if I just died._

He wished that it was the first time he thought that. It wasn't.

* * *

Jazz kept giving him side glances as she drove, her lips pressed into a fake smile that looked more like a grimace. Danny ignored her and stared out of the window at the passing scenery. Today was better than normal, and he didn't want Jazz's concern to bother him. She was just trying to be a good sister.

"Where are we going?" Danny finally asked, trying to break the awkward silence and help his sister start a conversation. He already knew where they were going.

"To Nasty Burger." Jazz gave him a grateful smile. "Happy birthday, baby brother."

He almost felt like smiling himself. "My birthday isn't until tomorrow."

Jazz drummed her fingers on the steering wheel. "I'm treating you, Sam, and Tucker a day early so mom and dad can do something with you tomorrow. It's not everyday my little bro turns 16, after all."

Danny chuckled, something that surprised him and Jazz. "So you're buying me a burger instead of getting me a present. Clever." It was no wonder that his sister got accepted into every ivy-league school she applied for.

The siblings pulled into the Nasty Burger parking lot. Danny exited the car quickly, his eyes searching for his two best friends. It had been a month since Sam broke up with him, but the two were still friends. Sam was just waiting for Danny to get his shit together. He spotted the goth girl standing next to Tucker, who was tinkering with his newest PDA. Jazz caught up to him, and the two walked over to his friends.

Sam was the first to spot them. "Happy birthday, Danny." She called out, her hands stuffed into the pockets of her skirt. Tucker looked up and waved.

"Sup." Tucker said. "I just upgraded the GPS on this thing so that it can-" He was cut off as Sam elbowed him in the ribs. "Happy birthday, Danny" He coughed out.

They ordered their food (cheeseburgers for both Danny and Jazz, a bacon burger for Tucker, and a tofu burger for Sam) which Jazz paid for. It was a Thursday afternoon, and for once the restaurant was quiet, but that could be because football practice was currently in session and so all the jocks and cheerleaders were gone. An old couple ate their food in a corner booth, the old man saying something that made his wife chuckle. There was another family that looked about ready to leave, otherwise they were the only other ones in the restaurant.

Taking their favorite place by a window, they started eating their food in silence. Danny gazed out the window, chewing his french fries and not really paying attention to anything. Days like today made him feel like he could be normal once more. But eventually, something always happens that ruins his good mood.

"So," Sam started saying. She hadn't touched her tofu burger at all. "Danny, have you thought about what topic you want to talk about in your presentation for history next week?"

Good mood was gone, and Danny's stomach plunged into icy depths. The history presentations were in pairs, and Danny got the lovely opportunity to be working with Kwan. Normally, the Asian jock wasn't that bad by himself, but Dash and Paulina had been paired together. So not only was Danny expected to put together his and Kwan's presentation, he had to do Dash's and Paulina's as well. If he chose not to, Dash made it very clear what would happen. Danny almost reached up to touch the still-purple bruise on his shoulder, but stopped himself just in time.

Everybody knew that they were the school bullies. Nobody knew that things had gotten worse for Danny ever since they got older. The half-ghost had made it clear to them one day that they could no longer touch Sam and Tucker, so the jocks had responded by taking things out twice as hard on Danny.

 _I can handle this._ Danny had said to himself one day after Dash had punched him so hard he threw up. _As long as Tucker and Sam are safe._ The same sentiment remained today. He would still do anything and everything to protect his friends, he just wasn't handling it well anymore.

"Um, I was thinking about talking about the differences between the New England colonies and the Virginia colonies." Danny said softly, putting the fry he was holding in his hand down. That was the plan for Kwan and his presentation, anyway. He had no idea what he was going to do for the second presentation he was expected to make.

Tucker wiped ketchup from his mouth with his hand, earning a glare from Jazz. "Sam and I are going to do ours on the French and Indian war."

For a brief moment, red-hot jealousy burned through Danny's cold core. Of course Sam and Tucker would be paired together while he got stuck with his tormentors. Then it went away. The teacher had put them together; nobody had a say in who their partners were. The teacher didn't know that Danny was having major problems with the 'it crowd'. Nobody knew because Danny didn't say anything.

 _You begged yourself not to do this anymore._ A part of him nagged. That part was squashed down by a louder voice that didn't want Tucker, Sam, Jazz, and his parents worry about him. Jazz's forced smile came to his mind. His sister was trying to do everything in her power to make her little brother happy again. His sadness was making them worry even more and his silence wasn't fixing anything.

"Well, if any of you need any help with your presentations, you can always ask me." Jazz offered. She said that to everyone, but Danny knew she was really talking to him. He could do that, he thought with a sense of relief. Jazz could help him come up with an idea for a second presentation.

(Or, he could stop pretending he was a weakling and beat the snot out of Dash instead of doing his project for him. People from China knew he was Phantom, why did it matter if there were a few more? Because then Dash and Paulina would tell everybody and he would never have a moment to himself, that's why.)

"At least we haven't had a ghost attack in the last three days." Tucker shrugged. "It's given us time to work on these stupid presentations. Man, why did Ms. Jackson have to make these worth half our grade?"

A chill went up Danny's spine and exited through his mouth. The other three saw the puff of cold air and winced.

"I jinxed it, didn't I?" Tucker sighed.

Danny glared good-naturedly at him. "Yup." Actually, he was glad a ghost was attacking. It saved him from thinking about the projects for right now. That was another thing that had changed after he had saved the world from Vlad's mistake. Before he dreaded fighting ghosts because he dreaded the pain that came with each fight. Now he cherished each attack because they distracted him from his life. When he was fighting ghosts, he could hit something. When he was fighting himself, he was too numb to do anything but stare at a wall.

The four of them moved at once. Sam and Tucker followed Jazz to her car to grab Fenton anti-ghost gear while Danny ran into the bathroom and transformed. Going intangible, Danny shot through the roof of the diner and levitated twenty feet in the air. Where was his next punching bag?

 _Huh?_ Everything was silent. There was still noise from cars and people going about their daily business, but there were no screams of terror. No ghost yelling his plans for all the world to hear. He looked down at Jazz, Tucker, and Sam. The three of them each held blasters and thermoses, glancing around just as confused as he was.

No. . . ghost?

But his ghost sense went off! What the hell? Was he wrong? Twisting in the air, Danny got a 360 aerial view of the entire city. Nothing, nada, zip. Completely and totally fine. Shrugging his shoulders, Danny drifted downwards to join with the others. His feet touched the pavement.

 _Insolent cur._ The whisper felt like it had come from his very bones. The most malevolent energy he had ever felt, even more evil than the ghost king, plunged into his chest like a knife. His legs were frozen, locked into place by his own fear or another force he did not know.

"Danny, what's wrong?" Jazz started to step towards him.

"Stop!" He screamed, looking at their startled faces. They didn't feel it; they couldn't sense the danger. _Halfa, scum, does not belong._ It wasn't a voice that spoke those words, more like a thought that popped into his head. Except he _knew_ those weren't his thoughts. The energy built up like a raging tsunami, twisting, curling, cunning. Something bad was going to happen. Right. Now.

Danny locked his eyes onto Sam's. "Run."

The last thing he saw was her purple lips parting before he was flying backwards, an invisible _something_ crashing into his abdomen. He felt, rather than heard, a couple of his ribs break as any air he had in his body escaped in a forced weaze. This was really bad, one or two of his internal organs were bruised for sure. All he could think of though was what came out of Sam's mouth? Was it another question? A sigh? His name?

He went intangible milliseconds before he would have hit the Nasty Burger sign. Gritting his teeth, he made his body heavier and stopped in the air, one hand wrapping around his middle. He saw his friends and his sister chasing after him, battle gear ready. He did not see the ghost.

He sensed something on his right and whirled around, firing an ecto blast from his hands. The green energy crashed into a building, breaking a window. There was nothing there. "Where are you?" The half ghost yelled in frustration, letting go of his stomach to create ecto blast waiting to be fired on both hands.

 _You should not exist._ _Hate you, hate you, hate you._ A sensation colder than the time he discovered his ice powers wrapped around his ankle. Reacting fast, Danny glanced down just in time to see flecks of black swirled around the limb before he was sent careening down into the street below. Concrete snapped and imploded on the impact, sending dust into the air. Danny laid on the ground, eyes large. The wind had been knocked out of him for a second time, and he couldn't catch his breath. His entire back felt like somebody had flayed the skin off. He couldn't move, couldn't even think.

The black flecks danced up from the ground, swarming together to create a shapeless blob. A segment detached from the group and rose into the air, forming a gleaming needle.

Move. He need to move now!

Two gleaming white dots formed in the mass of blackness, blinking rapidly. _Abomination. Eradicate the mistake._ It was like silky venom, eroding all other thought from his head. The needle level downwards, pointing directly at his heart. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Jazz running towards him, trying to open the Fenton Thermos. Her mouth was open, her terrified eyes were on the strange ghost, but Danny could not hear anything. _Eradicate, eradicate, eradicate._ The word pumped through like mind like blood.

Sam, Sam was right behind Jazz. _She can't see you die,_ the thought interrupted the ghost's threatening mantra. With a wild gasp, Danny sucked in air. Oxygen shoved the fuzziness in his mind away, and he jerked his hand up and shot an ecto blast at the needle. The blackness vanished, specks scattering in every direction.

Oh lords above, his entire body was screaming in pain. Sam, Tucker and Jazz were still running towards him, only twenty feet away now. He knew if they tried to help him at all, the ghost would attack them. He couldn't allow that. This thing, whatever the hell it was, was stronger than anything he had ever faced before. Stronger than Pariah Dark, and this time he didn't have a power-enhancing suit to fight it with.

Pushing himself up to one knee, Danny lifted up one hand and sent an icy blast towards his friends. A wall of ice formed between the buildings, blocking them from coming any further. Tucker, Jazz, and Sam skidded to a halt inches from his barrier.

"Danny?" Sam called out, her voice hurting with betrayal. The ghost boy flinched and looked away.

He thought that he had been in pain before, but this, this was a different kind of agony. "Sorry." Danny voiced, but not sorry for the reasons they were thinking. He was sorry for how he had been acting the past year. Sorry for not seeking or even wanting help until it was too late. Sorry he had to leave them like this. "You guys can't help me fight this one." Not this time.

The black particles began to regroup and Danny raised his eyes to look at those who were closest to him for one last time.

Tucker placed his hand against Danny's wall, his eyes looking wet. "Danny." His voice cracked. "Don't do this, please."

Danny pushed himself unsteadily onto his feet and smiled. Funny, it wasn't a forced smile. Without another word, he levitated into the air and sped away. He needed to get as far away from civilization as possible. A chill swept up his spine, signaling that the thing was following him.

The half ghost had a hunch. The black mass had called him a halfa and said that it hated him. This new threat wasn't the usual ghost seeking to take over the world or gain more power. It was after him, and him alone. Nobody else would be hurt in this fight except for him.

Danny reached his maximum speed and pushed harder. The city was a blur underneath him, and the wind tore at his cheeks. The oppressive feeling of violence behind him vanished and Danny grinned. He had left it in the dust. Glancing behind him, he saw a small black cloud grow smaller and smaller. He couldn't outfight it, but he could outrun it.

The first thing he felt break was the wrist of the hand outstretched in front of him. Like he was viewing it in third person, Danny saw his body crumple as it smashed into a black wall in front of him. He wasn't outrunning the ghost. It was getting smaller because parts of it were outrunning him. There was no pain, just numbness as he fell from the sky once again. Phantom had blacked out long before his body hit the ground.

* * *

His insides were on fire, that could be the only explanation for this agony. Wrist, ribs, collar bone, all broken. Concussion? You betcha. Who knows what else was messed up. It took a minute, but Danny became aware of the sound of people screaming. Ah, there it was, the sound he was looking for earlier. The next thing he became aware of was his throat hurt, like a lot. There was a pressure around his neck that was crushing him. His eyes flew open and his arms scrambled to tear off the thing around his neck. Glowing green eyes met white dots surrounded by an inky darkness.

 _Halfa scum._

His toes barely touched the ground as the ghost held him up in the air by his neck. Danny coughed and the hold loosened slightly.

Black dots that did not belong to the ghost were doing the waltz in his vision. The white eyes penetrated his very being. They should have made him feel weak and frightened, but instead they made him angry. "What. . ." Danny gasped. "Are you?"

"Phantom!" The people screaming were screaming his name. Damn it, he didn't make it out of the city. He failed.

The ghost's form flickered. _Forgotten. Died too long ago to remember._

"Somebody call the Fenton's!" Somebody screamed. Danny writhed in the ghost's grip. No, don't do that! Don't bring his parents here, _please!_

 _Not supposed to exist._ The white spots in the ghost's form narrowed into slits. _Hate things that are not supposed to exist. Accident. Will fix mistake. Kill. Kill. KILL._

He was not going to die here! Danny stuck icy hands into the black mass and pushed all his power out at once. Ice shot through the particles, encasing everything in ice. The blackness around his neck vanished, and Danny fell to his knees, rubbing his newest bruise with his uninjured hand. Cheering erupted from the watching crowd and people began to swarm towards him.

"Stay away!" Danny roared, stopping the people in their tracks. "Run, now! This thing is not going to stay frozen for much longer!"

Dash shouldered his way through the crowd. "Phantom, are you okay?" The worry for his hero evident in the shakiness in his voice. Cursing inwardly, Danny realized that he had crashed down close to Amity Park mall. The entire football team and cheerleading squad were here, along with countless adults and children. The ice next to him began to quake.

Shit. "I said RUN!" Danny got to his feet. Everything was quiet for a split second before all hell broke loose. The crowd scattered like dirt under a leaf blower, no sense in which directions they ran, their only purpose to get out of there. The ground trembled as the ice shook, each individual particle vibrating relentlessly. An abandoned car on its side, no that wouldn't work, it was too big. A flag pole sticking out horizontally from the building behind him, no, there was no time to grab it. There had to be something he could use to defend himself! His eyes landed on a slab of concrete that had broken when he fell from the sky. It would have to do for now.

His ecto blasts had no effect on the ghost, and his ice wasn't working either. Danny's only hope was to dodge its attacks until he had built up enough energy to attack with his ghostly wail. He could only pray that it scattered the flecks of black far enough apart they couldn't regroup again. Earlier he had noticed the ghost only attacked when it coagulated into one mass. Maybe it meant that it was weaker when it was separated. Maybe it didn't.

If it didn't work, well.

At least he had already said goodbye.

With a boom that sounded like a cannon going off, the ice shattered, and the ghost shot into the air. White eyes formed once more, settling on Danny. The ghost boy pushed his white hair-now stained green with his own blood-out of his eyes and glared right back. Multiple holes littered his hazmat suit, and areas that were once white were now greenish. This was probably the worse he has ever been hurt fighting a ghost. (Except when he almost died from the powerup suit fighting the ghost king. But he didn't break any of his bones then.) His concussion was making his vision seem shaky and blurred. Not a good sign.

 _Insolent abomination._ Frost started to form in the air, frozen by the ghost's energy. Danny clenched his hands into fists, green ecto energy flickering around them.

"Maybe I am." Danny replied tauntingly. "But I am still going to kick your butt right back into the ghost zone."

It hissed, a long drawn out noise that sounded like nails on a chalkboard. _Do not belong here. Will get rid of you._ It dove, stretching out into a sharp point. Danny rolled to the side, grabbing the slab of concrete as the momentum propelled him back onto his feet. The ghost's movements were fluid, like liquid. It shot towards him, and Danny lifted his make-shift shield up, forgetting that his wrist was broken. The ghost slammed into the concrete. The two ends of Danny's snapped wrist bone slammed back together, grinding against each other. The slab shattered under the impact as Danny screamed in agony. His vision went white and all he could hear for a moment was the sound of his own heartbeat pounding against his skull.

 _Die, halfa. Become a full ghost._ He was laying on the ground, gasping for air as green ecto blood dripped into his eyes from a cut on his forehead. The ghost was slithering around his right hand, turning his fingers blue from its icy core. _Halfas shouldn't exist._

Every breath he took in felt like he was inhaling glass shards. "Tried that once." Danny wheezed out, looking defiantly into the two white spots. "With being just human. Didn't like it at all."

An idea popped into his head. If he found the ghost's core and grabbed it, then he could pump it full of his ecto energy and blow it apart from the inside. Its guard was down now, thinking that it had defeated its enemy completely. Preparing himself for the pain that would follow his action, Danny lunged with his uninjured hand and thrust it into the center of the inky blob. Time froze, and crimson swirled in front of Danny's eyes.

 _No, it wasn't her, it was something_ inside _of her. Please believe me! It shouldn't exist. Stay away from me! No, you shouldn't exist. The victim swore up and down that it was a giant talking wolf that ate her friend, but those things shouldn't exist._

 _I made a mistake in creating you, you shouldn't exist._

 _Mistake._

 _Abomination. Creature. Don't belong here. Should be fixed. Correct our mistakes._

 _Kill those that should not exist._

The ghost reared back, hissing again. The many different voices screaming in Danny's head vanished. The tail end of the ghost curled around Danny's broken wrist and lifted him back into the air. Pain like electricity shot all the way down into his toes and Danny threw back his head in a soundless scream. _Disappear, mouthy brat._ It swung him to one side and then hurled him through the air. The brick of the building behind him kissed the back of Danny's head, and he blacked out for the second time.

* * *

He couldn't move his hand. It's funny that that was the only thing he could think of at that moment. He couldn't move the hand that was supposed to be uninjured. It was above his head, that much he knew, but he didn't know why. He couldn't look either, it felt like somebody had superglued his eyes closed. Maybe he should go back to sleep and worry about this later.

No wait, that wasn't good. He had a concussion. He wasn't supposed to fall asleep.

But maybe he'll think about that after he took a short nap, after all, his eyes were already closed. Open them, he needed to open them.

Drip. Drip. Drip. What was that noise? His eyelids fluttered open. Oh, so somebody hadn't taken super glue to them. Tucker would do that. Wait, no he wouldn't, that was mean. He could lose all his eyelashes that way. Drip, drip, drip. Noise, focus on the noise. Brown brick encased him like a tomb. Huh, the building must have collapsed around him when the ghost threw him into it. Drip. Eyes slid over to the left where he heard the noise coming from. Red liquid dripped downwards into a small scarlet puddle. Blood. He followed the blood back to its source.

So that's why he couldn't move his hand. The tip of the flagpole he had spotted earlier was buried into his wrist, pinning his appendage a foot above his head. His pale, gloveless, human hand. That's not good. He felt sticky all over, like somebody had dumped a vault of chocolate all over him. Except the chocolate was crimson in color. If the broken tip of the flagpole was stabbing his wrist, where was the rest of the slim metal bar?

Dimmed blue eyes roamed around the small area he was trapped in. A chunk of the building was pinning his right leg, but he didn't really feel it. He looked down.

Found the rest of the flagpole. Something bubbled in the back of Danny's throat and he spit it up. Blood dribbled down his chin. Somehow he knew that having a metal bar sticking out of his side was really, really bad.

He needed to review his options. One wrist was badly broken, the other had made buddies with a metal bar. Hands were out of the question. One leg was stuck under a boulder of rock. Luckily, the other one looked perfectly healthy. Probably the only thing left on his body that was. He had no energy left at all and he had been forced back into his human form. Did he have enough juice in him to go intangible?

More blood seeped down his chin. If he went intangible and pulled away from the flagpole that had impaled him twice, he would bleed out in seconds. There was nothing he could do to save himself. He needed help. Except he blocked his help behind a wall made of ice. A chuckle forced its way through bloody lips. An icy wall both metaphorically and literally. He had been dying inside for the past year and he had let nobody help him at all.

 _Have you ever wanted to disappear? No more problems, no more bruises, no more second guessing._

This was the end; he was going to die. No more problems: no more bullies terrorizing him in the hallways as he feigned submission. No more bruises: no more scars from ghost fights. No more second guessing: no more wondering if Sam was really waiting for him. Wondering if she still liked him. Everyone would be happier if he just died already. He was worthless, useless, a waste of space.

He shouldn't even exist.

Blood crept slowly down the front of his shirt. Blue eyes slid closed. It wouldn't matter if he fell asleep and didn't wake up.

* * *

"Wake up, Danny Phantom."

Green eyes opened. He was in a room filled with glowing green gears. A young child ghost hovered in front of him. Before his eyes, the ghost aged into a young man.

Sitting up, Danny grabbed his stomach. No flagpole impaling him. "Clockwork." He greeted, looking at his surroundings in wonder. "Am I. . .?"

"In the ghost zone, yes." The time guardian replied, waving his staff at the room they were in. "But you're technically not here yet. You're dying, Danny Phantom. Your body is back on earth, but your spirit is here."

Phantom sighed, rubbing the back of his head. "I thought so."

The ghost regarded him silently with a blank impression, though Danny got the feeling that Clockwork was disappointed with him. Who wasn't at this point?

"The thing you were fighting," Clockwork aged into an elderly man. "It wasn't a ghost."

Danny looked up, surprised. "It wasn't? Then what the hell was it?"

"It was _ghosts._ Plural." A mirror drifted over, called by Clockwork's staff. Danny glanced into it and saw the swarm of black dots. "Each one of those black specks is the soul of a ghost that all banded together under one purpose: to destroy anything that should not naturally exist. They are the ghosts of people who were killed by the unexplained, or had somebody they cared about killed by something that just should not exist."

Clockwork shifted back into a young child. "I am sorry, Daniel." He sighed. "We were unaware of this new threat until just minutes before it broke through your parents' ghost portal. Each time you entered the ghost zone, you awoke more and more of these revenge-seeking souls. They began to gather, pulled together by your energy actually. When we became aware of their intentions, to destroy you, we sent a party to warn you. Skulker and Ember were the first two volunteers. Though, apparently they were too late."

Danny raised an eyebrow. "Skulker and Ember, really?"

Clockwork smiled, but it was grim and sad. "Believe it or not, but they actually enjoy fighting with you. It would ruin all of their fun if you died. The afterlife can be so dull sometimes."

The turning-into-a-full-ghost boy sat back down on the floor of Clockwork's territory. He was exhausted. Shouldn't dying make him, he didn't know, not tired? "So, what is the real reason you brought me here?"

Clockwork aged again. "Really, Daniel, if you didn't have as much going on in your life I believe your grades could be quite good. You really are quite cunning."

Danny smiled at that.

Summoning another mirror with his staff, Clockwork paused and sighed again. "As you know, after the incident with the future you managed to avoid, I agreed to become your guardian and watch over you. This is me, being your guardian. I want to show you something. Look into the mirror, please."

Danny looked into the reflective surface. The only thing he saw was his own face. There was no green ghost-blood in his hair or cuts on his face. The scar on his temple from a year ago was gone even. Green eyes blinked and the surface of the mirror rippled and figures started to form.

"What do you see, Daniel?"

The ghost boy leaned forward, his brow crinkled up in confusion. "Is that. . . Sam?" The woman he saw in the mirror was standing by a kitchen table, eating chocolate ice cream right out of the container. It looked like Sam, sort of. The woman wore a pair of dark red skinny jeans and a dark blue shirt with a skull on it. Instead of purple lipstick and violet colored contacts, the woman he saw wore red lipstick and her eyes were a usual shade of brown. She looked like she was in her mid twenties. But it couldn't be Sam, a streak of her black hair was dyed a brilliant pink. And she was pregnant.

"The woman you see is named Samantha Fenton. She is your wife."

Danny's face turned pink. "What?" He squeaked, eyes darting to the woman's bulging belly.

Clockwork hid a smile. "What you are seeing is your future ten years from now. Technically, I should not be showing you this at all. But sometimes you have to throw the rules in the trash."

Danny watched, transfixed, as a young girl ran into the kitchen. She had long raven hair and looked suspiciously like Dani, except she had Sam's eyes and nose. "Mama, mama!" The girl ran up to Sam, a big grin on her face. That was Danny's smile. "Guess what, mama?"

Sam paused, a spoon halfway to her mouth. "What is it, sweetie?" Sweetie? Danny couldn't believe that anything that endearing belonged in Sam's vocabulary.

The girl rocked back and forth on her heals. "Uncle Tucker said he was going to build me a computer. Today! It's going to have holographics and everything!"

Sam put her ice cream laden spoon back in the carton. "Savannah, go tell your uncle Tucker I said you couldn't have your own computer until you turn eight."

Her little face broke into sadness, and Danny reached up and touched the mirror with his fingers. Then, quicker than a flash, her expression flipped 180 and she grinned. "Mama." She sing-songed. "What's that you're eating? Ice cream, huh? Doesn't that have _milk_ in it? Mama, you're breaking the recyclo-vegetarian code!"

Sam blushed and quickly strode to the freezer and put the ice cream back inside. "You will speak to nobody about this, especially not your father! He would _never_ let me forget it!"

It's true, Danny shrugged, he wouldn't.

The girl gave her mother a 'I know I have won and you know it too' look. "So mom, can I go help uncle Tucker build me a computer?"

Sam looked at the freezer then back at the little girl. "Go for it. Blow things up, I don't care. Wait." Her eyes narrowed. "Did you leave your brother alone with Tucker?"

The girl froze. "Um, maybe? Dad's back there too, but he's asleep."

Sam groaned and rubbed her temples, muttering something that sounded like _trying to use old PDAs as binkies._ "I'll go get him."

To Danny's complete and total surprise, a plume of blue breath escaped from his future daughter's mouth.

"Beware! I am the Lunch Box Ghost, daughter of the Box Ghost and the Lunch lady!" A young female ghost flew into the kitchen, her little fists raised in the air. "Feel my wrath!"

Savannah grinned. "I'm going ghost!" She yelled as two rings swept over her body, turning her black hair white. Her outfit was completely black with one white sleeve.

"Wait!" Danny turned to the Clockwork ghost. "She can go ghost too?"

"Of course, Daniel. When your accident happened, your entire DNA was modified to become half-ghost. It became part of your genetic code. All three of your children will someday be born with ghost powers. You start a new era, where people are more than just human. The line of Danny Fenton will one day become legendary, treated like royalty even. Your prosperity will be forever blessed because of your accident, Daniel." Clockwork explained.

That. . . sounded absolutely insane. Before he could comment back, he heard another crash from the mirror. His daughter was fighting the Lunch Box Ghost, while Sam looked absolutely bored. The fight moved out of the kitchen and Sam quickly opened the freezer door and pulled the ice cream back out.

"Damn, I hate being pregnant." She muttered and stuck the spoon back into her mouth. the mirror froze on that scene.

"Your future is bright, Daniel." Clockwork looked fondly at the image. "Ten years from now you are the happiest you have ever been. Your depression is only a sore memory for you."

Danny blinked and looked down at his white gloves. "I am depressed?" Why did it suddenly make so much sense?

"You are suffering from clinical depression, Danny." Clockwork told the confused boy. "It's okay, many people suffer from clinical depression at least once or twice in their lives. You, however, refused to seek any form of aid, and then you had all that added stress piled on and it made you get progressively worse and worse."

Jazz had been right, he had been in poor mental health for such a long time. He looked back at the mirror, at Sam who looked stunning, at what his life was going to be like ten years from now. Things were going to get better, so much better.

The other ghost smiled at the hope on the younger's face. "Your future is indeed bright, Daniel. Samantha is one of the world's leading experts on botany. Tucker is the CEO of a major computer software firm. Your sister, Jasmine, is a professor of psychology at Harvard University. Your parents are the world leaders in ghost defense. You, yourself, become so powerful that no ghost dares to try to take over the world anymore. Sure, some of your old enemies still challenge you, but it's just for fun. The future is bright for everyone."

"But." Clockwork's demeanor changed. His face grew stony and he growled the word out. Sam's face vanished from the mirror, making Danny cry out. "You are currently laying under the rubble of a building, having lost the will to live. You are dying, Daniel, but not because you're bleeding out, but because you're killing yourself!"

The mirror rippled again, an image of a grey skies and rain appearing on the surface. "You truly think that everyone will be better off without you? You think that nobody would care if you died? You really think that you are worthless, that you don't matter? Look, Daniel, look!" Clockwork pointed his staff at the mirror.

There was no need for the ghost to shout the last thing at Danny, for the ghost boy couldn't tear his eyes away from the mirror even if he wanted to. He saw Sam and Tucker in front of a headstone, standing in the rain without an umbrella. Sam wore all black, and had dark rings under her eyes. Her hair was long and tangled, and she looked older than she really was. Tucker was in a wheelchair, looking as grim as Sam was. They stayed there, not moving or speaking for several long minutes before Tucker sighed and wheeled away. Sam did not look at him as he left.

"That's your grave, Daniel." Clockwork said in a softer voice. "This is the future where your friends and family rushed to your aid and found you dead. Tucker refused to leave your body behind as the building collapsed even more, and he had his back broken by a falling rock. Now he is permanently paralysed. Sam will never marry anybody or fall in love with somebody else. She lives off her family fortune, spending the rest of her days trying to find the ghost who killed you.

"Jazz blamed herself for your death and refused to eat for a week. She now teaches high school students history and works as a counselor for the school. She vowed to make sure that nobody felt as alone as you did before you died. Your parents quit hunting ghosts for good after you died. They are now living off of government welfare. Dash was so horrified to find out the kid he tormented for years was actually his hero, and now there was nothing he could do to apologize for being a bully. He committed suicide. Is this better, Danny? Is this the future you wish for your loved ones?"

Tears were streaming down his face. Sam looked so sad, so broken. "Make it go away." He whispered. He had felt extreme pain from being thrown around by ghosts. He had felt blinding agony as his friends and Jazz had looked at him with hurt betrayal. If somebody pumped him to the brim with gasoline and then pushed him into a burning building, he doubt it wouldn't hurt half as bad as this. Seeing his friends his pain and knowing that _there was not a damn thing he could do about it_ was way worse than being in agony himself.

Clockwork flicked the mirror away. "I am your guardian, Daniel. I can not standby and watch you give up, not when you have so much to look forward to. There is still a chance you might die, Daniel, given the severity of your wounds, but are you going to give up? Are you going to stop fighting? If you are, then you are not the hero that I thought you were."

Danny looked back down at his gloved hands, and curled them into fists. He could still picture the red blood staining them. He didn't want to die. There was no way he was ever going to leave them hurting like that. Green ecto energy flared up around his fists, and Danny jerked his head up to meet Clockwork's eyes. "Send me back."

The ghost smiled. "Wake up, Danny Phantom."

* * *

Ugh, he should have remembered that having a concussion made thing really hard to focus on. Think about one thing at a time. What was his first step to fight for his life? Right, opening his eyes. It felt like forever, but eventually his eyelids cracked open and he saw through the sliver of light the same brown brick. He blinked, and his range of vision widened.

Okay, system check. One hand lying uselessly by his side, the wrist badly broken. Yup, still there. The other arm was still pinned above his head, but now it was numb. The pool of blood underneath it was bigger than he remembered it. One leg good, the other stuck under rock. Flagpole was still impaling his side. Darn, he was hoping that problem would magically go away.

Now for the second step. Which was, which was. . . huh, the pattern in the brick kinda looked like a heart. How cute. Focus, Danny, focus. Survive, not die. He needed to live long enough to tease Sam about craving chocolate ice cream while pregnant. Okay, back on track; the only way he was getting out of here was if somebody found him. So he needed to get somebody to find him. Easier said-er, thought-than done.

Danny opened his mouth, but the only thing that came out was a weak cough. Screaming for help was obviously not an option.

"-ny! Danny?"

Was somebody screaming his name, or was that his imagination? It was kinda nice when people screamed his name. Made him feel important. He liked being Phantom sometimes, people of this city liked him. Most of them anyway. At least his parents were pro-phantom now.

"Danny Fenton, you answer me right now!" Mom, that was his mom. So somebody really was screaming his name. He was grateful for that one person that said they should call the Fentons. That person deserves a medal. Danny coughed again, spitting up more blood. Sorry, mom, there was no way he could answer.

Still, he had to do something. He liked it better when his blood was in his body and not down the front of his shirt.

Gravel crunched underneath a foot close to him. He heard a sharp intake of breath. "Over here! I see blood!" Sam's voice. She sounded worried. Danny took his previous statement back; blood out of his body was okay for right now. "Danny, are you in there? Hey Tucker, come help me move this rock!"

He heard scraping and the crumbled brick started to shift. A loose stone fell out of the wall and pinged against the outstretched flagpole. The movement was slight, but it felt like a thousand daggers piercing him from the inside. A loud groan emitted from his lungs and he struggled to catch his breath.

"Danny, is that you?" Tucker this time. "Jazz, get your parents, he's over here!"

The scratching sound intensified. A single brick was extracted from the mess, and Danny flinched as sunlight shone on his face. Quick as the light had come, it was blocked by a face. Sam's face. Danny watched as her hopeful expression morphed into blankness and then terror. "Dan. . .ny?" She gasped. Her lipstick had rubbed off long ago, and her mascara was smudged on her cheeks. Danny had never seen her look so beautiful. He needed to tell her that everything was going to be alright. He was still fighting to hold on. He's going to be okay.

Danny coughed instead. Every time his chest moved, a white-hot flare of agony emanated from the rod sticking out of his side.

"Tucker, call an ambulance." Sam said lowly and began trying to move more brick out of the way.

"What, why?" Sam was shoved out of the way as Tucker took a look through the hole. One of the lenses of his glasses was cracked, and he had a small cut on his cheek. Danny wondered how that had happened. Slowly, his friend gulped and his hand went to cover his mouth.

Don't look at me with that much horror, Danny wanted to say. He was going to be just fine. "Don't worry, okay?" Tucker said as he removed his hand, trying his best to smile. "We're going to get you out of here. Don't move, kay?"

If Danny could raise his eyebrows, he would. Really? He was literally stuck to the ruined building behind him. There was no way he was going to move anytime soon.

"Tucker, Sam, did you find my son?" Danny heard the deep voice of his father call. There was the sound of hurried footsteps, and then his three other family members joined his two friends.

Another rock fell loose from the unstable tomb he was in and smashed down onto his broken wrist. That's how Danny found out he could still scream.

Throbbing blackness filled his vision and Danny heard the drip, drip, drip of his other hand. _There is a chance you might still die, Daniel, given the severity of your wounds._ No, please no, Danny thought as pain overcame his senses and he knew nothing more.

* * *

"-awake when we first found him, but I don't know if he was aware of what was going on."

Sam.

A hand touched him, stroking his hair. "Danny, baby, please open your eyes." His mom begged. The third time trying to do just that proved to be the hardest yet. What was going on? He could still feel the flagpole in his body, though he had no feeling in his arm anymore, so that must mean that he was still sitting in the rubble of the ruined building. The first thing he saw was an ambulance and a crowd of people behind it.

His mom was kneeling next to him. Sam, Tucker, and Jazz were all talking to medical workers. His dad was looking away, looking more distraught than Danny had ever seen him. His eyes flickered to look at his mom. She smiled at him, but her cheeks were stained with tears.

"His eyes are open!" His mom called out, drawing the attention of all the medical workers and his family. "Sweetheart, can you hear me?"

Danny blinked and groaned. His mom laughed, but it sounded hysterical. "Baby listen to me, you're going to be fine." She cupped his face, being careful not to touch the rest of his injured body. He saw the red of his own blood coat her hands and he wanted to frown. His mom's hands should never be covered with his own blood. "The firemen are going to saw through the flagpole, okay? They'll try to be careful, but it's going to hurt, baby. But we need to get you out of here. Do you understand, Danny?"

Coughing to clear the blood out of his throat, Danny opened his mouth. "M'm" Well, that was a pathetic attempt to say mom, but at least noise came out. He could see it in her eyes. She thought he was going to die. He needed to tell her that it wasn't going to happen. He couldn't die yet, he hadn't met Savannah or his son or the little baby in Sam's stomach. Fresh tears welled up in his mom's eyes.

"Don't try to talk, baby." She rubbed her thumb in circles. His dad knelt by her, placing one hand on her shoulder as he looked at Danny with hollow eyes. They didn't have hope. Looking at how much blood he lost, Danny wouldn't have much hope either. But they didn't _know._ They didn't know that he refused to die. He wouldn't give up. He would never give up, not again.

Danny slid his eyes away from his parents and looked at Jazz, Tucker, and Sam. His sister was hugging her middle, as if she was trying to hold herself together. Tucker looked lost, his hands hung limply at his sides. Sam looked at him fiercely, her jaw clenched and tears in her eyes, but determined. _Don't you die on me, Daniel Fenton._ Her expression said. Don't worry, Sam Manson, he said back in his mind, I won't.

All of a sudden, his parents were gone, and people were gently pushing him forward. Danny let out a strangled cry as his side and wrist slid forward on their rods. So much pain, couldn't think.

Then the sawing began.

There was no way he could ever describe how the shifting rod felt buried in his flesh. He couldn't see anything, hear anything, or feel anything other than acid burning and eating at his bones. The sawing stopped, and somebody gently lowered his arm onto his lap.

"Why won't he pass out again?" Danny heard Jazz sob. "I can't listen to him scream anymore!"

If I pass out again, Danny mentally told her, I will never wake up.

He felt the weight of the saw on the bar behind his back. Then he felt what red mixing with black looked like. A million years came and passed away, and all he knew was agony. When he became aware of his surrounding, he was lying on a stretcher, being loaded into the ambulance. The flagpole was still protruding from his body, but he was no longer in the destroyed building.

Turning his head slightly, Danny saw the sea of people standing in silence, watching in reverence. Dash and Paulina were in the front of the crowd, and Danny met their eyes. Paulina looked away immediately, and Dash followed suit seconds later. They know, Danny realized. He wanted to roll his eyes at his own stupidity. Of course they knew. They saw Danny Phantom fighting a ghost and then Danny Fenton being extracted from the fight zone.

 _Have you ever wanted to disappear? No more problems, no more bruises, no more second guessing._

Not anymore. Never again.


End file.
